


Showdown

by dreamlittleyo



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Family, Gen, Hunting, Roadhouse, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-18 05:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/185463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamlittleyo/pseuds/dreamlittleyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo comes back to the Roadhouse.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Showdown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rivers_bend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivers_bend/gifts).



"Are you staying?" Ellen asks.

She watches her daughter, waiting on eye contact or a response—whichever comes first. The Roadhouse is a familiar, muted rumble of activity around them, and Jo hasn't said so much as a word about what brought her home. No explanation so far for why she's suddenly here instead of hunting and sending postcards and tearing Ellen right up with worry.

"No," Jo finally says. Her eyes, when she raises them, are soft and sad. "I'm not staying."

Ellen has imagined her daughter's return a hundred times, and never once did it go like this. She always figured it would be big. Explosive. Dramatic. A showdown of violent words and familiar ultimatums. She always figured they'd be right back at each others' throats, fighting between inevitable extremes, love and fear.

She didn't figure on this quiet resignation—the sense of inevitability she feels settling into her bones. It numbs the sick edges of her constant fear that something will happen to her little girl.

She could ask what Jo's been hunting lately, but she doesn't want to know. She could ask if there are any new scars, but she doesn't want to see them.

Instead she says, "Let me get us a couple of beers."

As she stands and heads behind the bar, from the corner of her eye she could swear she sees Jo smile.


End file.
